Making a Fortune

The next morning.

"My cultivation..." Jiang Ran opened his eyes, astonishment filling them.

The progress of his Qi Cultivation had not been particularly great. After all, his vital essence had yet to be fully refined, and that process would still take some time.

But...

His cultivation of the Qi Refining technique, the True Origin Formula, had advanced at an extraordinary pace.

The amount of spiritual power within his body had clearly increased.

Jiang Ran knew his own spiritual power inside out.

After all, his total spiritual power had been small to begin with—only 109 strands, barely past the threshold of Qi Refinement Level One.

Generally speaking, the basic standard for Qi Refinement Level One was one hundred complete strands of spiritual power, while Qi Refinement Level Two required two hundred.

"125 strands of spiritual power?" Jiang Ran was somewhat stunned.

"Sixteen more strands in one night..."

A normal cultivator with a Low-Grade Spirit Root could cultivate, at most, one strand of spiritual power a day. The vast majority could not even reach that limit.

Yet Jiang Ran had cultivated sixteen strands of spiritual power in a single night.

Forget a Low-Grade Spirit Root—even those with Mid-Grade Spirit Roots or Superior Spirit Roots might not achieve such speed...

"Is this the effect of True Qi?" Jiang Ran vaguely sensed the answer.

He raised that glimmer of spiritual light, and True Qi rose and fell in his palm.

"Ice-Lake Spirit-Water Qi"—consuming it allowed one to undergo Dao Initiation.

In the outside world, such a pure and complete strand of True Qi would be an invaluable treasure.

Yet to the Hundred Yue Sect, this kind of lower third-tier True Qi seemed worthless, something they could casually hand out as a reward.

No matter what, True Qi was precious. As long as one could undergo Qi-Consuming Initiation and become a cultivator of the Qi-Ingesting Realm, one would rise above ordinary people and become a lofty Qi-Ingesting immortal.

But now, this strand of Ice-Lake Spirit-Water Qi likely could no longer meet the requirements for Qi-Consuming Initiation.

"It was absorbed by me." Jiang Ran came to a realization.

With his Qi Refining cultivation, he could keenly sense changes in energy.

This strand of Ice-Lake Spirit-Water Qi was still pure, but its total amount had clearly diminished, forcibly reduced by nearly one-third.

Jiang Ran naturally understood what had happened.

Ice-Lake Spirit-Water Qi was equivalent to the finest cultivation resource, and it had directly transformed into his spiritual power cultivation.

"True Qi can benefit cultivation, but this rate of consumption is a little too terrifying."

Jiang Ran did not know whether to laugh or cry. He had no idea whether this was a good thing or a bad thing.

Improving his cultivation was certainly important, but nearly one-third of the True Qi had only been exchanged for a dozen or so strands of Qi Refining spiritual power...

This deal did not seem worthwhile.

"Forget it. True Qi can't be taken back and sold for money. What's used is used." Jiang Ran took it well.

A month ago, he would definitely have been heartbroken.

Now that he knew more, he had more concerns as well.

That Dao master from the Hundred Yue Sect had explained it clearly: the Dao path was singular and could not be changed.

If one consumed Ice-Lake Spirit-Water Qi to undergo Dao Initiation, then one's Dao path would be set. For life, one could only be a seventh-tier True Qi cultivator.

The seventh tier still belonged to the lower three tiers. Above it were the middle three and upper three tiers.

Everyone knew that the higher the grade of True Qi, the better. Jiang Ran naturally hoped for a good start, one that would let his Dao path stretch farther.

He did not dare hope for upper third-tier True Qi. Even obtaining a strand of sixth-tier True Qi would count as entering the middle three tiers.

"Qi Assimilation is too important. I must take it slowly."

Jiang Ran believed that with his ability to travel between two worlds, he could earn Tianlu Coins in Pingjiang and certainly obtain cultivation resources of his own in the Great Ruins.

The following days went rather smoothly.

The mineral vein was too vast. Everyone was mining underground, making it difficult to encounter other "miners," which spared him plenty of trouble.

On the fifth day, the Spirit Stones ran out, and the impact drill stopped working.

Eighteen Spirit Stones had yielded a small hill of ore piled up in his spatial storage.

There were two to three hundred pieces of ore, large and small. By rough estimate, they weighed at least 2,500 jin in total.

Converted into Tianlu Coins, that would be five million!

Five million Tianlu Coins...

To cultivation families and wealthy tycoons, it might not be worth mentioning.

But to Jiang Ran now, it was undoubtedly a "fortune."

This money would be enough to make up for his shortage of cultivation resources.

Injections, medicine, body tempering, and learning techniques could all be put on the agenda.

The college entrance examinations were no longer out of reach. The top ten prestigious schools were beckoning to him.

"I'll stay another two days, turn in the mission, then head back." Jiang Ran suppressed the excitement in his heart.

In his previous life, he had possessed far more wealth than five million.

But this world was different. Five million represented the capital for his path of cultivation!

There was not much left of the half-month mission period.

In recent days, many more figures had been rushing around the mine.

Mining was not a simple task, especially for many whose Qi Cultivation remained in its first two stages. It often took them several days to dig out a single piece of ore.

With only half a month, a considerable number of people could not gather sixty jin of ore.

Thus, many could only run about everywhere, switching mining sites and searching for ore that was more exposed.

There was no helping it. The mine belonged to the Hundred Yue Sect, and the mission had also been assigned by the Hundred Yue Sect.

The Hundred Yue Sect's immortals might have seemed amiable and generous in the previous days, casually bestowing numerous cultivation techniques and True Qi.

Everything came at a price. Generous rewards corresponded to strict requirements.

Sixty jin of ore was both the bottom line and a mandatory task that had to be completed.

Couldn't hand in enough ore? The outcome would certainly be miserable.

The immortal sect had issued many recruitment calls in previous years, and these rules had been passed down through the mouths of the old-timers from generation to generation.

Jiang Ran naturally had no need to worry about such things. He found the most comfortable open spot and cultivated.

Perhaps thanks to its pristine natural environment, the overall spiritual energy density of the Grand Ruins Realm was at least a full level higher than in Pingjiang.

Even without Spirit Stones, his cultivation efficiency was at least thirty percent higher.

The Ice-Lake Spirit-Water Qi had been completely consumed several days ago.

His number of spiritual power strands had surged from 109 to 168. He was no longer too far from Qi Refinement Level Two.

At this pace, it would not take long before Jiang Ran could break through to Qi Refinement Level Two.

In the entire Class Three of First High School, there were only three people at Qi Refinement Level Two.

The earliest to break through, the class monitor Cheng Qian, had even ranked among the top three hundred in the grade.

Once he reached Qi Refinement Level Two, both his physical fitness and his comprehension of spells would improve enormously.

By then, getting into a good cultivation university through the college entrance examinations would no longer be difficult.

It was on the sixth day of Jiang Ran's peaceful cultivation.

That an uninvited guest arrived and interrupted his focus.

"Brother, could we have a word in private?"

There were three of them. None were tall, but all were powerfully built. At a glance, they were clearly trained fighters.

"What is it?" Jiang Ran frowned slightly and assumed a guarded stance.

A miner's only task was to mine. The chances were high that these people gathering together meant no good.

"I am Zhao Xiaohui, a Qi Cultivation cultivator from Golden Sun Village!" The leading burly man had a conspicuous scar across his face.

"These two are Li Huan and Liu Che."